Cynthia Westcott, 1898–1983

Westcott received her Ph.D. degree from Cornell University in 1932. She is credited with opening the nation’s first ornamental disease diagnosis business (Plant Doctors). Her expertise in diseases of roses and other ornamentals was highly regarded, and she conducted garden courses for Macy’s and Bamberger’s department stores. She was among the first to successfully use bisdithiocarbamates for plant disease control. Westcott wrote a number of books about disease and insect control in ornamentals, including The Gardener’s Bug Book (1946), The Plant Doctor (1937), and the widely used Plant Disease Handbook (1950), now in its sixth edition (2001). She was elected a fellow of the society in 1973.

(Submitted for publication in July 2008.)

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